Brains of young marijuana users respond differently to social exclusion, study finds

by Maria Paz Noyen

A study conducted by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital found that young marijuana users experience social interactions differently than non-users. ILLUSTRATION BY SOFIA FARENTINOS/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Massachusetts General Hospital has revealed previously unrecognized insights into the consequences of marijuana use that alters cognitive functioning in young, frequent users.

Using marijuana recreationally and frequently has an unexpected response from the part of the brain known as the insula, which is responsible for self-awareness and perception, according to the study “Altered Neural Processing to Social Exclusion in Young Adult Marijuana Users,” published in the March issue of Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging.

“The unexpected reduction in insula response may indicate that marijuana users are less conscious of social norms or have reduced ability to reflect on negative social situations,” said Jodi Gilman, a professor at Harvard Medical School and lead author of the study. “But we currently are unable to determine whether these differences in neural processing are a cause or a result of marijuana use.”

In the study, researchers recruited a total of 42 Boston-area college students — 20 students who reported using marijuana up to four times a week as well as 22 students who claimed they had not used marijuana recently. Although the students were initially told that the experiment was about mental visualization, the experiment was actually designed to test responses to social isolation and ostracism.

The participants were instructed to take part in a computer module called Cyberball, an online game of catch that was actually programmed to “throw” them the ball only 75 percent of the time, unbeknownst to participants.

The aim of Cyberball was to give participants a sense of social isolation and exclusion by not involving them in the game 100 percent of the time.

The participants were asked to report and imagine the experience, as if it were a game of reality. When the game was over, they were asked about how they felt during the times when they were excluded from play. Images taken using an MRI machine showed there was significant insula activity in the non-marijuana control group and none in the user group.

Gilman said she was unsure of the study’s implications — researchers are still trying to make sense of this information — but believes it has opened a door for further exploration.

“It is hard to speculate whether [the findings] translate to actual differences in social behavior in real-world situations,” she said. “That is definitely an area for future study.”

Barak Caine, a professor in Boston University’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, disagreed with the conclusion of the study, which states that marijuana damages both physical and mental functioning.

“There is not a lot of evidence that [marijuana] damages,” he said. “There might be differences in the way the brain forms, but it’s not a straightforward consensus among scientists.”

Students making the transition to college from high school might be tempted to engage in marijuana use for a variety of reasons. Some smoke out of conformity to social pressures, while others use marijuana to help alleviate academic and personal stress. When asked about whether people of all ages are equally susceptible to the effects that marijuana has on the brain, Gilman said she believed youths are the population most likely to be socially affected by marijuana.

“I think there is a lot of evidence that young people are susceptible to peer influence,” she said. “Throughout adulthood, peer influence dissipates, but [young people] become reliant on peers for social cues and advice.”

Today, “weed culture” has become so embedded in society, especially among the youth, that those who participate in it often naively focus on the benefits of smoking while glossing over its potential negative effects. Caine, however, said he believes that anyone can make bad decisions, not just frequent or infrequent drug users.

“The most common presumption is that heavy drug users, particularly at younger ages, tend towards making incautious decisions,” he said. “Everyone is guilty of it.”

The Lurking Law That Turns Marijuana Ads Into Felonies

Jacob Sullum,

This week eight members of Congress asked Attorney General Loretta Lynch to reassure newspaper publishers that they won’t go to prison for accepting ads from marijuana merchants. While that prospect seems remote at this point, it highlights the uncertainty caused by continued federal prohibition of marijuana, which applies even in the 23 states that have legalized the drug for medical or recreational use.

While those states treat cannabis suppliers as legitimate businesses, the federal government still sees them as criminal enterprises, committing multiple felonies every day. Anyone who does business with them is implicated in those felonies, which is why banks are so reluctant to accept marijuana money. Providing services to cannabusinesses could be viewed as aiding and abetting federal drug crimes, while accepting payment for those services could be viewed as money laundering.

For newspapers and magazines, there is an additional concern: The Controlled Substances Act (CSA) makes it a felony, punishable by up to four years in prison, to “place in any newspaper, magazine, handbill, or other publications, any written advertisement knowing that it has the purpose of seeking or offering illegally to receive, buy, or distribute a Schedule I controlled substance.”

A marijuana ad from The Stranger, a Seattle weekly (Image: Uncle Ike’s)

That provision has been part of the CSA since 1994, two years before California became the first state to legalize medical marijuana. But publishers of newspapers and magazines that run ads for state-legal marijuana businesses gave little thought to its potential implications for them until last November, when U.S. Postal Service (USPS) officials in Portland, Oregon, announced that periodicals containing marijuana ads are “nonmailable,” citing the CSA and USPS regulations.

That came as a surprise to Oregon newspaper publishers, many of whom depend on the mail to deliver part of their print runs and some of whom sell space to cannabusinesses.

A few weeks later, responding to an inquiry from members of Oregon’s congressional delegation, Thomas Marshall, the postal service’s executive vice president and general counsel, noted that the CSA bans marijuana and marijuana ads.

“These provisions express Congress’s judgment that the mail should not be used as a means of transmitting advertisements for the sale of marijuana, even if that sale is allowed under state law,” Marshall wrote in a December 15 letter. But he also noted that local postmasters have no authority to reject mail for this reason.

“Per USPS policy based on the existing federal statute, local postal officials have been advised not to decide whether written, printed or graphic matter is—solely because of its content—non-mailable,” a USPS spokesman told The Denver Post. Marshall said postmasters who come across marijuana ads can contact the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and “the matter would then be turned over to the responsible law enforcement agencies for investigation if appropriate.”

In other words, periodicals containing marijuana ads may be “nonmailable,” but that does not mean you can’t mail them. Still, the allusion to the possibility of criminal investigation was rather alarming.

It prompted the letter that eight House members, seven of whom represent jurisdictions where marijuana is legal for medical or recreational use, sent Attorney General Lynch on Tuesday.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and his colleagues wonder how the Justice Department (which includes the Drug Enforcement Administration) might respond to reports about marijuana ads that postmasters happen to come across. They note that the department’s current policy is to leave state-licensed cannabusinesses alone unless their activities implicate “federal law enforcement priorities.”

Furthermore, a spending rider that was renewed last December bars the Justice Department from interfering with the implementation of medical marijuana laws. In light of those policies, the legislators argue, the feds should take no official interest in ads for state-legal marijuana merchants.

“The USPS has made clear their position,” Blumenauer et al. write, “but this still leaves uncertainty for businesses, including newspapers, as to how DOJ will react to any information provided by USPS about marijuana advertisements. Clarity for businesses is essential as they work to comply with state law, and as states seek to implement their marijuana laws safely and effectively.”

A marijuana ad from Westword (Image: Rocky Mountain Organic Medicine)

Clarity would be nice, but we are unlikely to have it anytime soon. It is not even clear whether a publication that accepts a marijuana ad is guilty of “placing” it, which is the action that the CSA proscribes. In 2011 Laura Duffy, the U.S. attorney in San Diego, talked about cracking down on newspapers and magazines that run ads for medical marijuana dispensaries.

She also mentioned TV and radio ads, which are arguably covered by another CSA provision that makes it a felony to “use any communication facility in committing or in causing or facilitating” a drug offense.

“If I own a newspaper…or I own a TV station, and I’m going to take in your money to place these ads, I’m the person who is placing these ads,” Duffy told California Watch. “I am willing to read [the law] expansively, and if a court wants to more narrowly define it, that would be up to the court.” But it seems nothing came of Duffy’s threats, and as far as I can tell her interpretation of the ad ban has never been tested in court.

Alex Kreit, a drug policy expert at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, and Seattle attorney Hilary Rosen, who specializes in marijuana law, say they are not aware of any such cases.

“Based on the text, it strikes me as a close issue,” Kreit says. “One could argue the best interpretation is that ‘place’ means only the advertiser. The advertiser places the ad, and the publisher runs it.

On the other hand, placing might also be interpreted to include the act of incorporating the advertisement into the publication, which would cover the publisher. Also, the language ‘knowing that it has the purpose’ arguably suggests a legislative intent to cover publishers, since this might refer to publishers who know the purpose of the advertiser.”

The Justice Department’s attitude toward marijuana ads is also unclear. According to a 2013 memo to U.S. attorneys, the department’s enforcement priorities include preventing interstate smuggling, sales to minors, and “adverse public health consequences,” which presumably include harms associated with excessive consumption by adults.

“I could certainly imagine the DOJ taking the position that advertising might lead to ‘over-commercialization,’” Kreit says, “and so treating it differently from manufacture and sales as far as prosecutorial guidance.”

By this point you may be wondering: Isn’t advertising a kind of speech, and isn’t speech protected by the First Amendment? Although dictating the content of periodicals certainly seems inconsistent with the First Amendment’s command that “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press,” the Supreme Court has said the Constitution allows the government to ban speech that facilitates lawbreaking.

“We have no doubt that a newspaper constitutionally could be forbidden to publish a want ad proposing a sale of narcotics or soliciting prostitutes,” the Court said in 1973. Seven years later, in a landmark commercial speech case, it reiterated that point, saying the First Amendment does not protect “commercial speech related to illegal activity.”

In a nod toward the First Amendment’s constraints, the CSA’s ad ban “does not include material which merely advocates the use of [illegal drugs], which advocates a position or practice, and does not attempt to propose or facilitate an actual transaction in a Schedule I controlled substance.”

That means a magazine like High Times is perfectly legal—except, perhaps, when it runs ads sponsored by marijuana businesses in Colorado, as it did in its 40th anniversary issue a couple of years ago. But publications that regularly run marijuana ads, such as Westword in Denver or The Stranger in Seattle, are regularly committing felonies, assuming that Laura Duffy’s reading of the CSA is correct.

A marijuana ad from Westword (Image: Heads of State)

Yet another CSA provision, added in 2008, addresses online ads for illegal drugs: “It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly or intentionally use the Internet, or cause the Internet to be used, to advertise the sale of, or to offer to sell, distribute, or dispense, a controlled substance where such sale, distribution, or dispensing is not authorized by this subchapter.”

On the face of it, that covers marijuana merchant directories like Leafly and Weedmaps, to the extent that they feature sponsored content.

Even if Lynch clarifies the Justice Department’s attitude toward marijuana ads, that policy could be changed at any time, by this administration or the next.

A bill that Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) introduced last month would guard against that possibility by making an exception to the CSA’s ban on marijuana ads for businesses that comply with state law.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), who signed the letter to Lynch, has proposed a broader bill that says the CSA’s marijuana provisions “shall not apply to any person acting in compliance with State laws.” That one sentence would let merchants advertise what legislatures legalize and cure many other headaches caused by the federal government’s resistance to making peace with a plant that most Americans have learned to tolerate.

Irish mum calls for a change to laws after son is 99% seizure-free following cannabis oil treatment

• By Briona Gallagher

Yvonne Cahalane blasted our laws as "illogical"

Tristan Cahalane, whose family are fundraising to bring him to the US to get medical marijuana treatment for his severe epilepsy

A severely epileptic boy is “99% seizure-free” after undergoing pioneering cannabis oil treatment in America.

Yvonne Cahalane is calling for the legalisation of medicinal marijuana in Ireland after seeing the amazing transformation in her son.

She moved to Colorado with two-year-old son Tristan, who was born with an incurable form of epilepsy, from their home in Dunmanway, Co Cork , last December.

The toddler, who was suffering 20 seizures a day, has drastically improved and Yvonne is convinced her desperate decision to leave Ireland was the right one.

Yvonne said: “Tristan was suddenly able to make eye contact and became more alert.

“He began to babble, repeat sounds and say new words – all of which had vanished since his spate of violent seizures last May when he stopped talking altogether.

“During the second week he began to get steadier on his feet, he wasn’t falling after a few steps, he was bending with stability. He would sit down without help and he began to kick a ball.

“His seizure activity lessened with every few days and once he had been increased to his optimum dose with the introduction of tiny amounts of THC, he was 99% seizure-free and has been ever since.”

In fact, Tristan has not had a seizure in three months and hasn’t needed rescue medication or oxygen since beginning cannabis oil treatment. His appetite and sleep have improved significantly and for the first time he can take part in normal everyday activities.

Tristan Cahalane, whose family are fundraising to bring him to the US to get medical marijuana treatment for his severe epilepsy

He is being treated at the Children’s Hospital Colorado, which recently made the top five on the US News & World Report Best Children’s Hospital’s 2015-16 Honor Roll.

And while she misses her husband John and their other son Oscar, Yvonne is full of praise for the health staff.

“I’ve missed so much of Oscar while daddy is missing Tristan’s development and progression, which he can only see through Skype.

“But the hospital and doctors we have caring for Tristan are wonderful, they hold cannabis in high regard as a medicine.

“Colorado in general is a very open-minded and beautiful state. There are educational events all the time to spread awareness of people’s options in using cannabis as their medicine.”

However, the treatment is illegal in Ireland and will not be available to Tristan when he and his mum come home when their visa expires.

So the determined mum has launched a campaign to legalise medicinal marijuana in Ireland and an online petition on change.org calling for a change in the law has acquired almost 3,000 signatures.

She added: “I think the prospects are good. It’s illogical to not have it in Ireland.”

Politicians warned to get drug law change right

Author

Alicia Burrow, Sam Thompson, Barry Soper,

(Getty Images)

Police Association head Greg O'Connor is warning politicians they must get any change in drug laws right.
The Government is agreeing with a major study which found a punitive approach to drug offending is doing more harm than good, and is looking at switching to a health-focused approach.



Mr O'Connor said before they legislate, they must understand the implications.

"If you don't get your policy right, all you will do will be empower your gangs, because you'll lead the supply, increase supply, in the hands of the people who're supplying it now, who are generally the organised criminals."

Greg O'Connor said he's not taking a stance on the pros and cons of loosening the laws around cannabis, but if you increase the demand for it you need to look at who is supplying it.

A former Canterbury farmer who's become the biggest cannabis dealer in Colorado, said the legalisation of the drug for recreational use has returned cash-loads to the community.

Marijuana dealer John Lord told Mike Hosking that in Colorado it's not a gateway drug, and in fact the use of it has become less appealing to youth.

"We've had medical marijuana for many years, and now recreational for two years, and [actually] the statistics are showing a downward curve amongst youth. People don't realise that our average customer is 42 years of age."

He said the taxes from cannabis have already overtaken the state income from alcohol.

"Those taxes have been returned to the community in the form of school construction, drug education programmes, and some really positive things have come of it."

The Greens have supported the decriminalisation of cannabis for the past 10 years, although are refining their policy at the moment.

Health spokesman Kevin Hague said the world's moving so fast on the drug issue that we have to keep up.

Mr Hague said we have to move with the times.

"Countries are going to be adopting a variety of decriminalisation and legalisation models, and New Zealand needs to ensure that we move quickly to monitor what other countries have done to figure out what's going to work and then to make change, otherwise we will be stranded on the wrong side of history."

"I expect that the outcome on cannabis is likely to reflect what's emerging around the world, and that's moving towards a regulated but legalised market, in the same way that countries like Uruguay have done."

Drug researcher Dr Chris Wilkins from Massey University said there's growing international appetite for drug policy reform away from criminal sanctions.

"We would recommend that you separate out medicinal cannabis, which is clearly for medical problems, from a regime where you want to make sure that cannabis is available for some recreational use."

Dr Wilkins said there are 12 different regulatory options that can be looked at.

"So it's anything from reducing penalties, to criminalising small amounts for possession, allowing people to grow their own cannabis plants, and organising cannabis clubs."

He said the important thing about all these different options is they don't involve a commercial profit driven market.

Can Marijuana Save Your Skin—And Your Sex Life? Inside the New Topical Cannabis Phenomenon

by Eviana Hartman

As state laws allowing the use of marijuana—medical or otherwise—continue to relax like the crowd at a Phish show, places like Colorado, Washington, and California are turning out products unlike anything the world has seen before. Vape pens that double as design objects? They exist, even if you can’t buy them outside Oregon.

Pot-infused granola bites from a James Beard Award–winning pastry chef? They’re coming, Chicago. Yet perhaps the most promising use for the plant is in a form that doesn’t even get you high. Cannabis is turning up in a host of new skin balms, lotions, oils, and bath salts, promising body benefits ranging from pain relief to better orgasms.

These potent products take the pot connection a step beyond those made with hemp seed oil, the moisturizer found in body-care brands like the recently launched Marley Natural line. That legal substance softens skin, but it doesn’t contain measurable amounts of cannabinoids, the naturally occurring compounds found in the flowers and leaves of the plant.

THC, the compound responsible for marijuana’s signature buzz, is the best known of these. CBD, another cannabinoid also found in both marijuana and industrial hemp plants grown for fiber, is non-psychoactive and a proven aid for pain, nausea, and anxiety (plus, if isolated and extracted from industrial hemp, it’s legal).

But according to Ah Warner, founder of Washington–based body-care line Cannabis Basics and an activist for the industry, there are hundreds more of such compounds, each with unique healing properties. “They’re anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, analgesic, cell-regenerative, and anti–cell proliferative for bad cells,” she says.

And when applied topically, cannabinoids can bring localized benefits without detectable brain buzz. Think of them as a natural high for your bum knee, or that pesky patch of irritated skin. This Vogue editor swears by Apothecanna’s minty, cooling Extra Strength Relieving Body Crème, a gift from a friend in L.A., for lower-back stiffness.

Most cannabinoid skin-care products on the market are designed to soothe achy spots or surface issues such as eczema. But those applications are just the tip of the iceberg: Oraximax, a forthcoming oral-care line, will tap into the antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties of the cannabinoid CBG. Kannactiv and Cannabis Beauty Defined, two skin-care lines from the same parent company, contain hemp-derived CBD as part of their formulas for clearing acne and combating signs of aging, respectively.

Last but not least, there are even cannabis topicals for the bedroom. Leading the charge is Foria, which claims its THC-heavy Pleasure oil for women, when applied externally and internally, increases blood flow and nerve sensation—amplifying sexual pleasure and intensifying orgasms. (Less titillating, though equally ingenious, are its CBD-rich Relief suppositories, designed to ease cramping and pelvic pain.)

Dr. Jennifer Berman, M.D., a prominent sexual-health advocate and clinician in Los Angeles, prescribes both Foria products to patients regularly—and is, in fact, such a fan of the line that she recently discussed it on Conan. “Perimenopausal, menopausal, and post-menopausal women who have noticed a decline in response have had great success with it,” she says of the oil. “Younger patients who have difficulty achieving orgasm have had enhanced response with it as well.”

All of which immediately sparks the question: How, and where, to get it? Some companies, like Oregon-based Empower Bodycare and Colorado-based Apothecanna, ship CBD-only versions of their products nationwide. But as Empower Bodycare founder Trista Okel points out, marijuana extracts that include THC “work better—this is because of the ‘entourage effect,’ in which the combination of cannabinoids are greater than the sum of their parts,” she explains.

In states where marijuana is legal, like Washington, Oregon, and Colorado, anyone of age can buy the products from cannabis dispensaries, though some marijuana-derived brands, like Cannabis Basics, sell only in the states where they’re made. Medical cardholders can access dispensaries in states like California and Illinois. Some companies, such as Foria for patients in California, allow online orders from certain medical-marijuana states once you’ve submitted the appropriate paperwork.

For the curious, the products offer an excuse to visit Portland or Seattle or Aspen this spring. “They’re effective, and they’re nonthreatening,” Warner says. “There’s no reason why everyone shouldn’t have access to them.” In any case, the anecdotal evidence appears highly promising.

Union: State Shouldn't Have Fired Man For Smoking Pot On Job

HARTFORD — The Connecticut Supreme Court is set to hear arguments Thursday on whether a state employee who was fired for smoking marijuana on the job was punished too harshly and should be reinstated.

Gregory Linhoff was fired from his maintenance job at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington in 2012 after a police officer caught him smoking pot in a state vehicle. He had no previous disciplinary problems since being hired in 1998 and had received favorable job evaluations, according to his labor union. He was arrested, but the charges were later dismissed.

Linhoff appealed the discipline to an arbitrator, who ruled the firing was too extreme and Linhoff instead should be suspended without pay for six months and subjected to random drug and alcohol testing for one year. The arbitrator said that while state rules and policies on drug and alcohol use allow for firing first-time offenders like Linhoff, they do not mandate it.

The state appealed to a Superior Court judge, who overturned the arbitrator's award on the grounds that it violated Connecticut's public policy against marijuana use. Linhoff's union, the Connecticut Employees Union Independent SEIU, appealed the judge's ruling to the Supreme Court.

The state attorney general's office says a decision in favor of the union would send a worrisome message that the state tolerates drug use and other criminal activity by state workers on the job.

At the time Linhoff was fired, he was seeking treatment for depression, stress and anxiety because his wife had filed for divorce and he had a cancer scare, and he believed smoking pot helped to alleviate his worries, according to labor unions lawyer Barbara Collins.

Collins is arguing that Linhoff's conduct was not so egregious that he should be denied a second chance

The science behind Marijuana

Arvitha Doodnath

Arvitha Doodnath says there are legalized drugs that cause more harm, such as alcohol and tobacco

The first brief in this series considered the case of a couple being prosecuted for the production and use of marijuana. This brief focuses on the science effects of marijuana.

Introduction
Marijuana is known by many names such as Cannabis, Ganga, Hemp, Durban Poison and Swazi Gold, Cannabis. It has been used for a very long time. Archaeology dates it back to about 3000 BC. In Siberia charred seeds have been found inside burial mounds [1].

In 1970 the United States Federal Government classified marijuana as a Schedule I drug (a dangerous substance with no valid medical purpose and a high potential for abuse). It was classified in the same category as heroin [2]. However, in 23 States as well as the District of Columbia the use of marijuana is now legalised for some medical purposes and a majority of the Americans are in favour for legalization for recreational use [3]. Uruguay and Portugal have also changed its legislation in favour of legalising of marijuana [4]. Israel, Canada and the Netherlands have medical marijuana programs [5]. A number of other countries have taken the more liberalized view on marijuana.

The science behind marijuana
There are three main types of marijuana: Cannibis Sativa, Cannibis Indica and Cannabis Ruderalis. Cannibis is a dioceious plant in nature which means that it forms into distinct colonies of male and female plants [6].

Cannibis Sativa [7]:
This is the most common type of cannabis species and is a very large plant which can grow from anything between 2-6 meters in height. It does not have particularly dense foliage. The leaves of Sativa are delicate and have smooth seeds without any marbling or flecks. This type of Cannabis takes a long time to flower and is less affected by changes in light cycles. Sativa is usually found in India, Thailand, Nigeria, Mexico and Colombia.

Sativa it is usually dried, cured and processed into a low-moisture herb for consumption. Sativa is more commonly used for getting users high rather than stoned. What this means it that it has a more stimulating than calming effect. Sativa has a high THC [8] to CBN [9] ratio and is therefore less likely to be suggested for medicinal purposes. It has been used for Ayurvedic medicine.

It is worth distinguishing the uses of seeds, leaves and resin of the cannabis plant. A seed is produced by the genes used from both female and male plants, unless it is produced by a hermaphrodite plant (see below) [10]. The fairly hardy plant is grown from seed [11]. The leaf is the part that is usually dried and smoked or taken in other forms. Resin is formed from the trichomes which are little buds on the cannabis plant which protect of the plant from predators. It is used for hashish which uses the aromatic sugar like oil i.e the resin to make it [12].

Cannabis Indica [13]:
This type of cannabis is denser than Sativa and is much shorter than Sativa measuring between 1-3 meters tall. The foliage of the tree is lush and the leaves are rounder and more robust. These leaves are more jagged and angular in appearance. The flowering of the Indica plant is more rapid and the plant is more susceptible to changes in light that induce flowering. The Indica plant is commonly found in Nepal, Lebanon, Morocco and Afghanistan.

Compared to Sativa the Indica flowers and buds are much closer to each other and are very sticky and resinous. Indica is also usually used to make Hashish due to its high volume of resin. Indica is the type of cannabis that gives the effect of the stoned feel. This is due to the high amounts of CBN in the plant.

Cannabis Ruderalis [14]:
This is the least well known from of cannabis and is extremely short in relation to the other two types. It measures between 30-60 centimeters in height. Ruderalis has very thick foliage and very fast flowering cycle. Ruderalis is not very psychotropic and is used primarily as a genetic material by breeders and cultivators. This type of cannabis ensures that hybrids which flower early can be bred and cultivated.

Reproduction
Male cannabis plants [15]:
The male cannabis plant, once mature, flowers process occurs all across the plant. Short flower stalks known as racemes are formed on the base of the flower itself. As the flower opens the plant releases a load of airborne pollen which is then absorbed by the pistil [16] of female plant. This is how the fertilisation of a cannabis plant occurs and it is usually that the male plant has earlier sexual development.

Female Cannabis plants [17]
The female cannabis plants also produces racemes. The female plant has a combination of tiny pistils and calices [18]. In each of the calices there is an ovule which receives the pollen from the male plant. When the grains of pollen stick to the pistil stalk it then pushes into the calyx which then fertilizes the plant. The calyx itself is also the site where cannabis seeds grow after fertilisation.

Hermaphrodite Cannabis Plants [19]
This type of cannabis plants is rare. These plants have both male and female sex organs and therefore are able to fertilize themselves. This type of plant is useful for breeding. The pollen from this plant is useful. Some growers collect it because even though it is supposed to belong to the male part of reproduction, the pollen from this plant is female and will produce female flowers.

Hybrids [20]:
Hybrids results from the cross-pollination of the different types of cannabis. Hybrids mix different characteristics such as different flowering cycles, yield, CBN: THC ratio and disease resistance. The hybrids are basically a composition or combination of the positive characteristics of the different strains together.

Semsimilla [21]
This is the unpollinated female plant and it is used to produce more cannaboids and buds. This type of plant has more sugar, THC and much denser odorous flowers. It is ideal for the medicinal purposes, especially for those patients who are in need of the active ingredient.

Local types of Marijuana
There are predominantly three different strains grown locally, these are Swazi Skunk, Durban Poison and Rooibaard. Swazi Skunk [22] is derived from breeders in Swaziland and has been exclusively inbred. It is the Sativa type of marijuana and has a very potent seedless bud with a strong cigar odour.

Swazi skunk is essentially a Sativa Strain. This variety grows between 4-6 feet indoors and up to 14 feet outdoors. The height depends on the conditions and growing time. There are a lot of branches with extensive large, slim leaves and compact sticky buds covered in hair and visible resin glands.

Durban Poison is one of the very few unadultered sativas which is currently sold locally. It has been described as an original landrace strain [23]. A Landrace strain is a local variety of cannabis that has adapted to the environment of its geographic location [24].

Rooibaard also known as Swazi Red is the third of the local brands and is also a landrace strain. It belongs to the Sativa type of marijuana. It is brownish green with red hairs and smells very earthy and herbal [25]. The effect of this strain is a ‘head high’ and will have a person lost in their racing thoughts [26].

Studies showing the physical effects of cannabis
A study conducted by Dr Manuel Guzman [27] investigated whether cannaboids can cure cancer. The active components of cannabis and their derivatives are useful in exerting palliative effects in cancer patients in preventing nausea, vomiting and pain by stimulating appetite [28].

These compounds inhibit the growth of tumour cells in laboratory animals such as mice and rats [29]. At the moment there is no solid evidence to prove that cannabinoids –whether natural or synthetic- can effectively treat cancer in patients, although research is ongoing around the world [30]. To date all the research done on cannaboids and curing of cancer has been using cancer cells which have been grown in a lab or in infected animals.

The following are some of the effects cited by the study of cannabis on the cancer cells [31]:
- Triggering of apoptosis (death of cancer cells)
- Inhibiting cells from dividing
- Preventing new blood vessels from growing into tumour
- Reducing the metastasized rate of the cells by stopping cells from moving or invading neighbouring tissue.
- Speeding up autophagy (the cell’s internal waste disposal system).

The study concluded that cannaboids are efficacious to at least treat some types of cancer in a laboratory setting. Phase 1 clinical trials to tests the efficacy of cannaboids on humans have begun [32].

Although we are awaiting the results of these studies relating to cancer we have had evidence of other studies which show that cannabis is useful for other diseases such as multiple sclerosis, arthritis, severe nausea and seizures [33].

Clinical studies are difficult to conduct on marijuana as there are a series of barriers such as research funds are limited and regulation is heavy[34]. It has been stated that Marijuana is useful predominantly for relief of symptoms as opposed to cure. [35].

A study conducted by the Medical Research Council (MRC) [36] conducted a survey of findings on the medicinal use of cannaboids. The results of this study were similar to that conducted by Guzman in that the medicinal use of cannaboids was found to [37]:
- Alleviate nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy
- Stimulate appetite in HIV/AIDS patients
- Chronic pain
- Spasticity due to MS paraplegia
- Glaucoma

This is not a closed list and the evidence given by the trial participants for each category was rated.

There was moderate evidence used to support the use of cannaboids in the treatment of chronic pain.

There was moderate evidence supplied that the use of cannaboids reduces the spasticity in Multiple Sclerosis patients [38].

The study furthermore revealed that there existed very low evidence to suggest that cannaboids reduce the nausea and vomiting of in HIV infected patients and that it reduces the intra ocular pressure in patients with glaucoma [39].

In some countries there have been medicines containing cannaboids. These medicines are dronabinol, nabilone capsules and oral nabiximol sprays [40].

There needs to be more studies conducted to prove that cannabis is efficacious to patients who use it if the decriminalisation is to occur for marijuana. Extraction from plants, quality standardization, dosage and use will all be issues.

Recreational use
The social harms of smoking, eating, drinking or inhaling [41] of marijuana could include dropping out of school, legal issues and delinquency to name a few. Those who become dependent on it become less motivated, could go into depression etc. [42]

The physical harm of marijuana use is that the THC in the marijuana over activates certain brain receptors. This results in altered sense, changes in mood, impaired body movement, difficulty with thinking and problem solving as well as impaired memory and learning [43]. Breathing illnesses, possible harm to a foetus’s brain in pregnant users, hallucinations and paranoia are also other physical harms caused by the smoking of marijuana [44].

There are long term and short term effects of marijuana [45]. The short term effects of marijuana are as follows and are not limited to this list:
- Sensory distortion
- Panic
- Anxiety
- Poor coordination of movement
- Lowered reaction time
- After an initial “up,” the user feels sleepy or depressed
- Increased heartbeat (and risk of heart attack

The long term effects of marijuana are as follows:
- Reduced resistance to common illnesses (colds, bronchitis, etc.)
- Suppression of the immune system
- Growth disorders
- Increase of abnormally structured cells in the body
- Reduction of male sex hormones
- Rapid destruction of lung fibers and lesions (injuries) to the brain could be permanent
- Reduced sexual capacity
- Study difficulties: reduced ability to learn and retain information
- Apathy, drowsiness, lack of motivation
- Personality and mood changes
- Inability to understand things clearly

Even though the following harms have been cited this does not detract from the use of other recreational drugs. In terms of harm to self and harm to others, cannabis has been rated as number eight on a list, and less harmful than either alcohol or tobacco. It imposes more harm on the user than to others [46].

It is a choice of the user in the case of marijuana as to subject them to the risk of such a drug. However marijuana, unlike other drugs, mostly gives the user a high or stoned feeling. The majority of users just want to sit down on the couch and “chill”. It does not create aggression. If legalised, it can have great benefits for recreational users and patients who use it for medical purposes.

Conclusion
Marijuana is not the serious threat that most governments want us to believe. There are legalized drugs that cause more harm than marijuana, such as alcohol and tobacco. One estimate is that over 158 million people around the world use marijuana [47]. There are social and physical side effects, particularly among adolescents and pregnant women [48]. But, the science shows that marijuana can be mixed in various quantities to achieve a certain desired result. Legalizing and regulation is preferable to a black market.

Marijuana gives hope in the treatment of epilepsy – Long Beach Health

Dr. Orrin Devinsky,

A medicine derived from marijuana may help treat children with severe epilepsy, new studies suggest. However, more research is needed to determine whether the medicine is effective and safe for use in patients with the condition, experts say.

Marijuana Extract May Help Treat Epilepsy, Small Study Suggests

The medicine is a liquid form of cannabidiol (CBD), one of marijuana’s crucial compounds, and it is currently undergoing clinical trials in the United States and other places.

In one of the new studies, researchers administered the medicine to 261 people with severe epilepsy for three months. The study included children as young as 4 months and adults as old as 41, but most of the patients in the study were children, whose average age was 11. The experimental medicine, called Epidiolex, was added to the participants’ regular anti-epileptic drug treatments.

By the end of the three months, the frequency of seizures in the people in the study was reduced by 45 percent, on average. In 47 percent of the people, the frequency of seizures was reduced by at least 50 percent, and 9 percent of the participants had stopped having seizures by the end of the three months.

However, 12 percent of the people stopped taking the medicine during the study because it did not seem to improve their symptoms. And 5 percent of the participants experienced side effects that the researchers attributed to taking the medication, such as altered levels of liver enzymes and diarrhea, according to the results, presented today (Dec. 7) at the meeting of the American Epilepsy Society in Philadelphia.

The researchers had previously tested the efficacy and safety of the medication for patients with epilepsy, but “the new study significantly extends the number of children and young adults with treatment-resistant epilepsy who received CBD,” said study lead author Dr. Orrin Devinsky, director of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at NYU Langone Medical Center.

The results from the new study “are very encouraging with regards to both safety and effectiveness,” Devinsky told Live Science. However, he cautioned that the new results are from an uncontrolled study, meaning there was no control group of participants who took a placebo instead of the drug.

 Only the data from the double-blind, randomized, controlled trials that are currently underway will give the researchers the critical and scientifically valid data, he said. (A double-blind study is one in which neither the researchers nor the participants know whether the participants received the drug or a placebo, so as to avoid bias.)
 
In another study presented at the same conference, researchers administered Epidiolex to a group of 25 children with epilepsy, for one year. The children were 9 years old on average, and as in the other study, were taking the medicine in addition to their current anti-epilepsy drug regimen.

By the end of the study, 10 kids (40 percent) experienced at least a 50 percent reduction in seizures.

One of the seven patients in the study who had a form of epilepsy called Dravet syndrome, which usually does not get better with other treatments, did not have any seizures by the end of the study.

However, 12 of the 25 kids (48 percent) stopped taking the medicine during the course of the study because it did not work for them, and one child stopped taking it because his seizures became more frequent while he was taking it.

Dr. Scott Stevens, an attending neurologist at North Shore-LIJ Health System’s Comprehensive Epilepsy Care Center in Great Neck, New York, who was not involved in the new research, recommended that, for now, the studies on the use of CBD in patients with epilepsy be taken “with a grain of salt.”

“The studies that have come out thus far are very small studies,” and they have been so-called “open-label” studies, he said. This means that both the researchers conducting these studies and the patients who participated in them knew which medication was being administered, which could cause a lot of bias, he said.

Researchers are now awaiting the results of the large, randomized, placebo-controlled trials that are currently underway, Stevens told Live Science.

In another study presented at the same conference, researchers tested how CBD interacted with other anti-seizure drugs in mice. They found that CBD and an anti-seizure drug called levetiracetam seemed to enhance each other’s effects, whereas CBD given with an anti-seizure drug called clobazam and another drug called carbamazepine seemed to reduce the overall effectiveness of the combined treatment.

The mouse study is one of the first studies to show researchers a little about how CBD could interact with other anti-epileptic drugs, Stevens said. However, it was done in animals, and therefore does not show how CBD would interact with these drugs in humans.

“Once again, we do need a lot more information, and that’s what we hope a large randomized, controlled trial would show, and future studies of what happens in humans, in patients with epilepsy,” Stevens said.

Marijuana Extract May Help Some Children With Epilepsy, Study Finds

Parents of children with severe epilepsy have reported incredible recoveries when their children were given cannabidiol, a derivative of marijuana. The drug, a non-psychoactive compound that occurs naturally in cannabis, has been marketed with epithets like Charlotte’s Web and Haleigh’s Hope.

But those parents were taking a risk; there has been no clinical data on cannabidiol’s safety of efficacy as an anti-epileptic. This week, doctors are presenting the first studies trying to figure out if cannabidiol actually works. They say the studies’ results are promising, but with a grain of salt.

The largest study being presented at the American Epilepsy Society meeting in Philadelphia this week was started in 2014 with 313 children from 16 different epilepsy centers around the country.

Over the course of the three-month trial, 16 percent of the participants withdrew because the cannabidiol was either ineffective or had adverse side-effects, says Dr. Orrin Devinsky, a neurologist at the New York University Langone Medical Center and lead author on the study.

But for the 261 patients that continued taking cannabidiol, the number of convulsive seizures, called grand mal or tonic-clonic seizures, went down by about half on average. Devinsky says that some children continued to experience benefits on cannabidiol after the trial ended.

“In the subsequent periods, which are very encouraging, 9 percent of all patients and 13 percent of those with Dravet Syndrome epilepsy were seizure-free. Many have never been seizure-free before,” he says. It’s one of several [at least four. checking] papers on cannabidiol being presented this week at the American Epilepsy Society meeting in Philadelphia.

Twenty-five of those patients were followed for a yearlong study also presented at the meeting. Some of those patients did better, but one ended up doing worse. “A drug can induce an increase in seizures,” says Dr. Maria Roberta Cilio, a pediatric neurologist at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital who led that study. This happened with one of her patients. “For one particular child, the more the dose of [cannabidiol] was increasing, that increase was paralleled with an increase in seizure frequency,” she says.

Some patients in Devinsky’s trial also did worse while on cannabidiol, but he thinks there’s no way to tell if it was because of the drug or something else. He says we won’t know until a full clinical trial has run its course. Without that, the perceived effects of the drug might be a placebo effect or it could be some other confounding factor that hasn’t been caught in the study. What’s more, a few hundred patients isn’t a lot of patients, and doctors still need to see what will happen when a patient is on cannabidiol for more than a few months.

Epilepsy can be one of the most difficult syndromes to treat. About a third of patients have an intractable form of epilepsy. It’s common for children and adults with treatment-resistant epilepsy to exhaust the list of anti-seizure medications to little or no effect.

Jaren Hansen is a 7-year-old boy with Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome, a form of treatment-resistant epilepsy. When he was 2, he started having seizures. His doctors diagnosed him with epilepsy and started him on one anti-seizure medication. Then they added another, and then another.

None of them seemed to be working. “He tail spun again and had a tonic-clonic seizure every day. At that point, he was on three seizure medications, and we weren’t seeing any control. Things were just tumbling downward,” says his mother, Nicole Hansen from Necedah, Wisc. “At one point, blood levels of Depakote [an anti-epileptic medication] were toxically high. We needed to try something else. We were scared for his long-term health based on just the side effects of the medicine.”

Hansen, who works as a cranberry grower in Wisconsin, started researching her son’s illness. She found an online chat group with other parents who were discussing medical cannabis, and decided to try one of the commercially available cannabidiol products. But it was difficult. States like Wisconsin do allow the shipment of cannabidiol supplements and oils that don’t contain tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana, but most doctors won’t touch it. “They won’t even prescribe it because there are too many loopholes and too much work,” Hansen says.

Lack of physician input often leaves parents on their own, Hansen says. That presents more challenges. “You have to make sure the company can replicate the same product over and over. A small change in the ratio of THC to cannabidiol can cause the child’s seizures to increase or come back. You have to make sure there are no microbial issues like molds or funguses or pesticides.”

That people are treating themselves or their children with cannabis products is troubling to physicians. “It’s a very worrisome time. People go off and do their own thing, if things go wrong, you don’t know why. You want data, and you don’t have it, and all the families are just trying things,” says Dr. Brenda Porter, a pediatric neurologist at Stanford University School of Medicine who was not involved in the study.

Devinsky says parents either have to purchase the cannabidiol from an artisanal distributor of hemp products or compound the drug themselves. Either way, “the consistency from batch to batch is quite uncertain,” he says.

And people sometimes try different formulations from several companies in the hope one will work. “As a practitioner, I have had families move to Colorado, and many tried multiple different products,” Devinsky says. That makes it really difficult to tell what is or isn’t working. “As a doctor, I often don’t feel like I know which of many factors is contributing to a patient doing better or worse.

We absolutely need rigorous, scientific data on this,” he says.

Even though the results presented at the American Epilepsy Society meeting look encouraging, researchers caution that there’s no promise cannabidiol is really going to work for many of these treatment resistant epilepsy syndromes. Until there is a full clinical trial done with a placebo-controlled element, Devinsky and others say it’s impossible to tell if cannabidiol is having a real effect on epilepsy. That takes time and puts parents in a difficult position, he says. “Parents are desperate and they feel the medical community has failed them, which is true in many cases.”

Hansen agrees with Devinsky; she feels that the clinical trials need to be finished as fast as possible. “There are parents out there doing whatever they can and experimenting with cannabis. We need the medical professionals so they can help make the proper recommendations,” she says. “But I can’t blame them for trying. When you are seeing your child dying, and knowing that you could do something to help them, how can you not do something as a parent?”

After Hansen put her son on cannabidiol he continued to have seizures, but the number of convulsive seizures went down. Then he caught a stomach flu, and things spiraled out of control. The tonic-clonic seizures came back, violently, and he nearly died. “They put him into am medically induced coma in hopes that it would reset his brain.” she says. “By God’s grace, truly, and by a miracle it did.”

Jaren is not on cannabidiol anymore. He’s on three different medications now, including a benzodiazepine and a barbiturate. “Both in the long-term can cause brain atrophy,” Hansen says. “At some point, we have to start weaning him off, and nothing else has worked. And he needs more than just cannabidiol.” She’s hopeful that cannabis research will bring the science to a point where doctors can begin looking into mixtures of cannabidiol and THC together.

Full on, randomized clinical trials testing cannabidiol for epilepsy are already underway, but it will still be some time until the results are out. Until then, Devinsky says, “Wait.”

Infusing liquor with 'weed'; The new craze in town?

In areas around Tema in Ghana, the drink is known as "Shocker", "Amen" in Osu, and "Wengeze" in Adabraka. For the people of East Legon, the drink is termed "Atemuda".

Mildred Europa Taylor

The practice, also known as Green Dragon, is apparently not new, as it is already trending in certain geographic areas (File photo)

I have always thought that alcohol mixed with cannabis was only used to heal wounds, at least from what I've seen in movies. But, I was taken aback when I came across its current use in some communities in Ghana.

A muscular man, probably in his early 30s, shirtless in briefs and covered in sweat outraged my community on Easter Sunday, after he began throwing tantrums, hitting cars, attacking innocent children and other community members at random.

I was returning from church with my mother, but I was forced to stop a few metres to the gate of my house, over fears that the man might attack my mother and I in the vehicle.

It later took the intervention of strong, able-bodied men in the neighbourhood to calm the situation, as they escorted the man to an isolated room in the neighbourhood.

So, as curious as I was to find out the reasons behind the man's strange behaviour, I approached one of my neighbours who had previously been at the scene of the incident.

 

She told me that the man was high following the alcohol he had at the drinking spot opposite my home. When I sought to find out why a man could behave this abnormally over a pint of alcohol, the woman quickly told me that the 'wee' in the alcohol is the cause of the problem.

'Wee' in alcohol? I was shocked; I mean why should weed or cannabis be infused with alcohol and be sold to customers, I wondered.

So I asked a few people, and the answer was “It's normal”, as it causes one to be “high”.

But, should it be so? Well, this happens to be one of the few aftermaths of consuming alcohol mixed with weed.

The practice, also known as Green Dragon, is apparently not new, as it is already trending in certain geographic areas. It involves weed soaked in high-proof alcohol.

In areas around Osu, the drink is termed "Amen"

In areas around Tema in Ghana, the drink is known as "Shocker", "Amen" in Osu, and "Wengeze" in Adabraka. For the people of East Legon, the drink is termed "Atemuda".

However, "getting high", no matter how you do it, has health risks that could be permanent.]

Ghana's Food and Drugs Authority [FDA], has underscored the need to regulate the production and consumption of alcohol in the country.

The Authority has, over the years, said it will ensure that alcohol products are produced under safe and hygienic conditions.

The Food and Drugs Authority

The FDA has also said that it will pay frequent visits to alcohol producing companies to ensure that the producers adhere to the safety and hygienic guidelines governing the production of alcohol. But how often are such visits being done? How can we ensure that retailers of the product are not engaging in unwholesome practices to increase sales?

It behooves the Authority and other regulatory agencies to step up their game.

So, as we reflect on these thoughts, here are some reasons as to why the practice of allegedly infusing 'weed' into alcohol should be nipped in the bud.

1.  The practice results in greening out, a term used to describe a situation where a person may feel sick after smoking marijuana. The individuals may go pale and sweaty, feel dizzy with “the spins,” nauseous, and may even start vomiting, medicaldaily.com has said.

  

2.  Mixing alcohol and marijuana can also cause paranoia, which makes people make flawed or even fatal choices. Alcohol and marijuana are both depressants, which work by slowing down the central nervous system, Psychology Today has said.

An ingredient of marijuana is THC that is absorbed into the blood faster when alcohol is also present.

Effects of using these substances together can be very unpredictable, as it  could cause anxiety, panic, or terror in people who use both substances at the same time.

Facts about medical cannabis

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

John Custis, 

I am a veteran who is very concerned about the 22 veterans that are taking their own lives in this country every day and I am very sad this fact is being brushed aside by Iowa legislators.

Cannabis is very helpful in treating PTSD and pain like (TBI) traumatic brain injury.

The Nation Magazine article, “The Real Reason Pot Is Still Illegal” explains how and why “Big Pharma” and others put so much money behind groups like “Drug Free America” to stop and condemn cannabis. I have heard legislators spout the same misinformation, almost verbatim.

States with medical cannabis programs have seen no increase in teen use. (See the March issue of International Journal on Drug Policy)

Look at “Epidiolex”. Here we have a company from England (UK) testing purified CBD on our kids and going through our FDA to make a drug to sell to us. The new appointee to head the FDA was a lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry. This is why states have taken this on themselves and not waited for the federal government.

OxyContin just received FDA approval provide their drug to our kids. Prescription pain killers kill more people than all illegal street drugs combined. The U.S. uses 84 percent of the world’s consumption of OxyContin. Veteran deaths from prescription overdoses is 50 percent higher than the public. Prescription pain killers lead our kids to use heroin. These are the people who want to stop cannabis, which is the safest painkiller ever found.

A fully funded, FDA approved study on cannabis to treat PTSD has been deadlocked in the system for three years. The “CARERS Act” has been held up by Sen. Chuck Grassley for more than a year. This bipartisan bill would allow medical cannabis to be researched and to be discussed by the VA with veterans and provided to veterans in states where it is legal.

Our group “Iowans 4 Medical Cannabis” come from all political parties. We do not allow recreational cannabis supporters in our group. We do not get any outside funds from “Big Marijuana”. We are self-funding and we only care about cannabis as a medicine — Period!

Iowa had a reasonable cannabis bill last year. It was modeled after Minnesota. All liquid (no smokable) cannabis. The House came up with a different bill this year but they cut it down to allow CBD oil, only, and only to treat three conditions, epilepsy, MS, and last year for cancer patients. The bill is basically useless.

Please call your local legislators and tell them to stop dithering, to stop throwing the lives of veterans away, and pass a comprehensive inclusive cannabis bill this year that includes PTSD and pain. Call Sen. Grassley and tell him to let the “CARERS Act” come up for a vote.

The Genes for Pot Addiction Have Been Identified

Maia Szalavitz

Arthur Tilley—Getty Images

They're also linked to depression and schizophrenia

For what may be the first time, specific genes associated with marijuana addiction have been identified— and some of them are also linked to increased risk for depression and schizophrenia. The findings could help explain why 90% of people with marijuana addictions also suffer from another psychiatric condition or addiction.

“We were surprised to find a genetic risk overlap between cannabis dependence and major depression,” said senior author Yale psychiatrist Joel Gelernter, MD, in a statement.

In the new research, which was published in JAMA Psychiatry, researchers studied the genes of nearly 15,000 people from three different groups, who were being followed to try to work out the genetics of various types of addiction. Among these groups, between 18% and 36% had cannabis addiction, depending on what the focus of the research was.


(In general, about 10% of marijuana users tend to become addicted to the drug but the samples included high numbers of addicted people in order to increase their chances of finding related genes.)

One of the genes discovered was linked to risk for both depression and marijuana addiction. The existence of such genes could help explain why previous data has been so conflicting: while some studies find that marijuana smoking increases depression risk, others suggest that it does not.

However, if certain genes raise risk for both conditions, this could make it look like marijuana addiction causes depression, when in fact, some people at genetic risk for depression are simply more likely to smoke pot excessively, perhaps in an attempt to self-medicate.

This information will be particularly interesting to parents struggling to know how to handle marijuana use by their teenage offspring. Teens who feel and socially disconnected are at the highest risk for all types of addictions and research shows that one of the best ways to prevent teen drug problems is to identify such youth early, before they turn to drugs.

The study also found a marijuana addiction gene that was connected with risk for schizophrenia. Researchers have long noted a correlation between marijuana smoking and schizophrenia risk, with studies finding that pot smokers are about twice as likely to have schizophrenia, compared to abstainers.

But here, too, it has been difficult to work out whether marijuana use increases the odds that those who are genetically vulnerable will develop psychotic disorders or whether people who are prone to schizophrenia also prefer to self-medicate with marijuana. This study suggests that genes that raise risk for both may explain part of the connection.

While one of the genes that the study discovered does not have any known functions, another is known to be linked to the regulation of calcium levels. In brain cells, calcium is part of the complex signaling system that allows them to communicate with each other. Previous research has linked calcium regulatory genes not only with risk for schizophrenia and depression, but with autism and attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) risk as well. ADHD is also strongly linked with addiction risk, particularly to marijuana.

A second gene that was discovered was found to be involved in the early development of the nervous system. It helps guide the projections of brain cells to their ultimate destinations, shaping the architecture of the brain. Other variants in this same gene have previously been found to be connected with both marijuana addiction risk and schizophrenia as well.

The findings offer more evidence that addiction is a neurodevelopmental disorder— like ADHD— that results from a complicated interaction between genetics and the social and physical environment over time.

Israel Is Cornering The Medical Marijuana Market

Maayan Lubell

 

TEL AVIV - Already a pioneer in high-tech and cutting-edge agriculture, Israel is starting to attract American companies looking to bring medical marijuana know-how to a booming market back home.

Since 2014, U.S. firms have invested about $50 million in licensing Israeli medical marijuana patents, cannabis agro-tech startups and firms developing delivery devices such as inhalers, said Saul Kaye, CEO of iCAN, a private cannabis research hub.

“I expect it to grow to $100 million in the coming year,” Kaye said at iCAN’s CannaTech conference in Tel Aviv this month, one of the largest gatherings of medical marijuana experts.

Scientists say strict rules, some set by the Drug Enforcement Administration, limit cannabis studies in the United States, where the legal marijuana market is valued at $5.7 billion and expected to grow to $23 billion by 2020.

“In the United States it’s easier to study heroin than marijuana,” said U.S. psychiatrist Suzanne Sisley, who has researched the effects of cannabis as a treatment for American military veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

“In the United States it’s easier to study heroin than marijuana.” 

“With marijuana you have to go through added layers of government red tape. It highlights the way marijuana research is being shackled by politics,” said Sisley, Director of Medicinal Plant Research at Heliospectra.

While scientific exploration may be restricted, 23 U.S. states now permit medical cannabis, and recreational use is allowed in four states and Washington D.C. This is despite the fact that at the federal level, marijuana is still classified as a dangerous narcotic with no medicinal value.

In Israel, marijuana is an illegal drug and only 23,000 people have Health Ministry permits to purchase medical cannabis from nine licensed suppliers, creating a market of $15 million to $20 million at most.

But Israeli authorities are liberal when it comes to research. Growers work with scientific institutions in clinical trials and development of strains that treat a variety of illnesses and disorders.

Israeli Health Minister Yakov Litzman, an ultra-Orthodox Jew, supports medical cannabis usage and has introduced steps to ease its prescription and sale.

Israel is far from alone in the market, however. Britain’s GW Pharmaceuticals is licensed to grow cannabis for medicine and in 2013 opted for a dual listing on Nasdaq, where it raised nearly $500 million from U.S. investors.

This month, GW announced its cannabis-based medicine Epidiolex had successfully treated children with a rare form of epilepsy. Its share price doubled as a result.

Medical cannabis is developing fast. Patients can smoke marijuana cigarettes, use inhalers, ingest oil extracts or even consume cookies containing marijuana extracts. GW has a multiple sclerosis treatment which is sprayed under the tongue.

PAIN RELIEF
In a clinic in Tel Aviv, 65-year-old Noa lights a joint. She suffers from fibromyalgia, a chronic pain disorder, and explains how six months of smoking medical cannabis has transformed her life.

“I can function again. Most importantly, I’m a grandma, I can roll around on the floor with the kids,” she said as she discussed with a nurse what strain would best alleviate her symptoms.

The clinic belongs to Tikum Olam, Israel’s largest medical marijuana supplier, which partnered this year with a private U.S. investment group to grow medical marijuana in four U.S. states.

Tikun Olam is taking part in clinical trials on epilepsy, Crohn’s disease, spasticity and tinnitus, said Zvi Bentowich, its chief scientist.

Professor Raphael Mechoulam of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, whose landmark studies in the 1960s paved the way for cannabis research by isolating and synthesizing THC, the main psychoactive ingredient of marijuana, praised the Israeli government’s open approach to the research.

“Cannabinoid research was and still is viewed positively by government committees,” he said, adding that law enforcement was not involved in study approval.

Jeffrey Friedland, CEO of private U.S. investment firm Friedland Global Capital, has invested in two agro-tech companies and a pharmaceutical firm in Israel.

“Israel is a leader in agriculture, take that and couple it with research - you have the two sides, plant science and pharmaceutical development,” Friedland said.

“If you’re in California or Colorado, you’re getting medical marijuana in a lot of cases from someone who did not graduate high-school - there’s no science.”

It was only in October that California drafted its first comprehensive regulations on medical marijuana, two decades after legalization fueled a grey market in cultivation.

Seth Yakatan, CEO of California-based Kalytera Therapeutics, said the level of capital efficiency in Israel was high.

“What you would spend half a million dollars on in the U.S. you could easily get for 125 or 150 thousand dollars in Israel and it’s going to be done efficiently and on time. The quality of research is world-class and the arbitrage of value is good.”

A Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University study, findings of which were published in May 2015 in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, showed cannabis constituent Cannabidiol, or CBD, helped heal bone fractures in rats.

Based on that study and others, Kalytera has licensed two compounds from the Hebrew University’s Technology and Transfer company Yissum. They are synthetic cannabis derivatives that the firm eventually hopes to use in treating osteoporosis, bone fractures and other diseases. — Reuters

Whoopi Goldberg Launches Medical-Marijuana Products Targeted at Menstrual Cramps

Whoopi Goldberg and Maya Elisabeth.

Photograph by Timothy White/Courtesy of Whoopi & Maya

“I have grown granddaughters who have severe cramps, so I said this is what I want to work on.”

by

• C.J. Ciaramella

Whoopi Goldberg has had it with cramps and had it with stoner jokes, and now she’s doing something about both.

Goldberg announced Wednesday that she’s launching a medical-marijuana company with Maya Elisabeth, one of the leading “canna-businesswomen” in the field, with a line of products designed to provide relief from menstrual cramps.

The company, Maya & Whoopi, will offer cannabis edibles, tinctures, topical rubs, and a THC-infused bath soak that it describes as “profoundly relaxing.” Frankly that last one, even though your humble reporter is a man, sounds incredible.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, The View co-host said she wanted to create a product for women that was discreet, provided relief, and wouldn’t leave you glued to your couch.

“For me, I feel like if you don’t want to get high high, this is a product specifically just to get rid of discomfort,” she says. “Smoking a joint is fine, but most people can’t smoke a joint and go to work.”

“This, you can put it in your purse,” Goldberg continues. “You can put the rub on your lower stomach and lower back at work, and then when you get home you can get in the tub for a soak or make tea, and it allows you to continue to work throughout the day.”

Goldberg has been outspoken about her medical-marijuana use in the past. In 2014, she wrote in The Cannabist about her love of her kush-filled vape pen, which she says gives her relief from glaucoma-related headaches without resorting to eating handfuls of Advil every day.

“I started using the vape pen because I stopped smoking cigarettes about four years ago and discovered I couldn’t smoke a joint anymore,” she says. “The relief that I got with the vape pen was kind of different from what I got with smoking. I could control it much better.”

If it worked so well for headaches, surely it could be applied to other aches, so Goldberg got in touch with a couple of industry experts to see if there was already anything on the medical-marijuana market for cramps. They told her no, because it was seen as a niche.

At this point in the interview, Goldberg stops to give an exasperated chuckle.

“Hey, this niche is half the population on the earth,” she says. “This seems to be people flippantly blowing you off, which is what you get whenever you start talking about cramps. They weren’t thinking how do you target this? I have grown granddaughters who have severe cramps, so I said this is what I want to work on.”

Goldberg then got in touch with Elisabeth, the owner of the female-run medical-marijuana cannabis company Om Edibles in northern California, and the two were off to the races.

Half the population of earth, male or female, isn’t using marijuana for now, but the market is booming. Washington state did nearly half a billion dollars in marijuana sales its first year after legalization, and some projections predict it will be a $20 billion industry in the U.S. by 2020.

Goldberg stands by her product for the same reason she favors it over painkillers for headaches. She says you’ll be able to look at the ingredients on any Whoopi & Maya package and know exactly what’s in it. (Queen Victoria, by the way, supposedly used a marijuana tincture to relieve menstrual cramps, so it basically has the seal of approval from the British royalty.)

For those who don’t have much experience in the field, Whoopi & Maya will also include products with only cannabidiol (CBD), which lacks the euphoric effects commonly associated with marijuana.

The whole line is scheduled to be available in April. For now, thanks to the patchwork of state medical-marijuana laws and the continuing federal ban on the substance, it will only be available in California.